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Tag Archive | Ruth Gordon has a field day (as ever) playing the wittily intelligent crime novelist Abigail Mitchell.

Today on “Days to Remember” we celebrate one of my favorite actresses named Ruth Gordon, who was born on October 30th 1896.

When Ruth Gordon convinced her father who was a sea captain, to let her pursue acting she came to New York and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She acted in a few silent films made at Fort Lee, New Jersey.

In 1915, she made her Broadway debut in “Peter Pan” and spent the next 20 years doing stage performances.

If I had to describe a “Renaissance Woman,” it would be Ruth Gordon hands down; because of the movie she made called, “Harold and Maude.”

It’s comedy that I think it’s worth watching, the movie came out on December 20th 1971, and what is about was a self-destructive and needy but wealthy teenager Harold is obsessed with death and spends his leisure time attending funerals, watching the demolition of buildings, visiting junkyards, simulating suicides trying to get the attention of his indifferent, snobbish and egocentric mother, and having sessions with his psychologist.

When Harold meets the anarchic seventy-nine-year-old Maude at a funeral, they become friends and the old lady discloses other perspectives of the cycle of life for him.

Meanwhile, his mother enlists him in a dating service and tries to force him to join the army. On the day of Maude’s eightieth birthday, Harold proposes to her but he finds the truth about life at the end of hers.

Today’s YouTube presentation brought to you by user name W. David Lindhom is the movie trailer clip of commercial version that ran to entice the consumers to see the movie called, ‘Harold and Maude,” as we celebrate Ruth Gordon’s birthday today on October 30th.

On August 28, 1985, Ruth Gordon died at her summer home in Edgartown, Massachusetts, following a stroke. She was 88. Garson Kanin, Miss Gordon’s husband of 43 years was at her side, and said that even her last day of life was typically full, with walks, talks, errands and a morning of work on a new play.

She made her last public appearance only two weeks before – at a benefit showing of the film Harold and Maude – and she had recently finished acting in four films.

“She had a great gift for living the moment,” said Glenn Close, who co-starred with Miss Gordon in Maxie, one of her last films, “…and it kept her ageless.”

If you happen to be a Columbo fan like me, Ruth Gordon had appeared on the infamous television show mystery in 1977, in episode called, “Try and Catch Me.”

For Columbo fans, such as myself, this is the episode of episodes that made a case for why Columbo was so popular, and just how good it really was. Ruth Gordon has a field day (as ever) playing the wittily intelligent crime novelist Abigail Mitchell. Seems Abigail calls her nephew-in-law to sign some papers making him her heir. She never got over her niece’s death, and is convinced her dead niece’s husband (Charles Frank) did the dirty deed. To tell more would be unthinkable. Mariette Hartley has a sly role as Abigail’s personal assistant. This episode of Columbo is in a class by itself. It’s a truly well made television movie. I recommend you watching it when you get a chance, as we remember Ruth Gordon’s today on October 30th.